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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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If you rate an underrated player, what are they?
RUSH retired this week, (not the observer) so we’re giving our flowers to one of NA’s most underrated heroes.
There are also some spicy rumours circling, so you know we have to give you our opinions on those, too.
Well, after an entirely underwhelming first round of matches, BLAST Bounty actually had some interesting games in the round of 16.
It kicked off with a bang. Astralis absolutely demolished NAVI after going down a map to start the series. Taking down the Ukrainian organisation 13-7 on Inferno and 13-2 on Nuke, NAVI looked pitiful as device, and jabbi ran over them.
We still don’t know if Astralis are actually good, given how poor they were in Cologne. But we are sure that they’re definitely a lot better now that they have a real IGL. Go figure.
The upsets kept coming on day one.
FaZe fell to VP as electroNic rolled back the years on Overpass and Liquid somehow also took down FURIA in what ended up being an almost too easy win once they got over being blitzed on Mirage.
They’re still bad, though. Let’s not f-ck around here.
G2 also almost got the better of Spirit on day one, thanks to donk putting in an absolutely stinky performance, but we guess it does help Spirit that they have sh1ro to make up for him when he does go missing – not that it happens very often.
Day two was far more predictable. Every game went 2-0 in favour of the higher-ranked teams.
The MongolZ vs. paiN was probably the most entertaining match out of the four, both teams had players pull off some impressive individual plays. Our favourite was this snow 1v4, which was just horrendously played by The MongolZ.
Seriously, why do they all keep peeking him?
Once MOUZ and Aurora made light work of B8 and HEROIC, we then got treated to Vitality vs. Legacy.
A match you’d expect to be as one sided as it was the last time the two teams met - even if it wasn’t one sided in the way everyone expected - Legacy actually managed to push Vitality to OT on Mirage, and they also put up a far better fight than they should have on Dust2, too.
For some reason, BLAST Bounty will now continue next weekend because tournaments with online stages and prize pools smaller than $1m definitely need to take up more than a week of our lives.
You could not live with your own failure. Where did that lead you?
Back to me us.
We’re willing to bet that’s what EliGE and Twistzz are thinking after seeing the rumour OverDrive dropped over the weekend. Apparently, FaZe and Liquid might be swapping the two.
Now, ‘might’ is doing some Olympic-level heavy lifting here, as this one is dangerously close to ‘trust me bro’ territory. But since it’s OverDrive, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and play along.
On the Liquid side of things, we’re well past the point of actually caring.
There’s no universe where EliGE rides in on a donkey as the messiah. And let’s be real, the man probably wouldn’t be thrilled about jumping into the dumpster fire that is Liquid right now.
Hell, we’d rate an EliGE comeback to Complexity higher than a return to Liquid. Okay, maybe that’s a bit much. Nobody deserves that.
At this point, Liquid are so deep in the mud that only a complete rebuild might do the trick. Honestly, just pull a NIP.
Now, FaZe, hear us out.
You’re a long way from the Major-winning force you once were, but you’re still not quite at Liquid-level rock bottom. Not yet, anyway.
Twistzz is a fantastic player you’ve had plenty of success with, so bringing him back might not sound too bad, but just forget about him. You’ve got solid pieces to build around, and it’s time to move on.
Instead, if you’re really craving a nostalgia trip, we’ve got the perfect rebound.
Kick broky and rain, sign GuardiaN and olofmeister.
Let’s really run it back.
Who is the most underrated player ever?
That’s a really difficult question for us to answer, because as soon as we put a name out there, they’re kind of… no longer underrated? They’ve finally got that recognition. It’s a phenomenon known as the ‘Michael Carrick paradox’.
Well, it’s not, but it should be. He was a very good footballer who was pretty underrated for a long time, but then one year every journalist demanded he win the player of the season and wouldn’t shut up about how underrated he was, until he was, hilariously, slightly overrated.
Anyway, we don’t have a definitive answer, but RUSH has to be up there. He was a workhorse player who made everyone around him better, and there’s a reason that two of the only good NA teams ever had him on it.
Sadly, his impressively decorated career - by NA standards - has come to a close this week, so we thought he’d make a perfect candidate for First Game/Last Game.
His career almost went in reverse, in a sense; his first game ever saw him go pretty horrendously negative (44-61), 3-8 in opening duels and finishing on a 0.77 rating. In his defence, he was playing against titans of the game like freakazoid, mOE, ShahZaM and… clown?
Alright, you might have detected a hint of sarcasm on the word ‘titans’ there, but that’s actually a pretty tough game for a new kid in 2013. RUSH actually did go positive on map two, which his team MonoManiac won, with a 1.11 rating and a 23-20 scoreline on Season.
Yes, really.
They got smacked on Inferno though, with RUSH stinking up the place, and freakazoid going absolutely crazy. 28-13! 1.95! It’s easy to forget that he wasn’t always a meme.
That whole ‘going in reverse’ thing? Instead of getting washed, RUSH actually ended his career doing a hell of a lot better than he started. He dropped a 1.20 against Marsborne for Nouns, finishing his career as a reliable, middle-of-the-pack guy that he was when he won the Major.
Now that’s consistency. He was the third highest rated player on his team in his first game, his last game and at the Boston Major in 2018.
Most underrated ever? Maybe not. But history will definitely be kind to RUSH. Enjoy your retirement, boss.
